Why was Benjamin Franklin such an important founder?

0:06Benjamin Franklin was another absolutely extraordinary figure. He had known Washington since the 1750s when they both served together during the French and Indian War, though he was a generation older than Washington. He lived a lot longer than Washington. That's why he was able to still be around at the time of the Constitutional Convention. He was not only the oldest person at the Constitutional Convention, he was also the oldest person in the time of the Declaration of Independence.

0:31That much earlier in 1776, he was the oldest person at the Continental Congress then. What he had done in his youth, even more remarkably than Washington and Washington is an impressive ride. Is Benjamin Franklin went from virtually nothing? For family, he was a indentured servant learning the printing trade, but he was so brilliant and so quick. He fled being an indentured servant which was probably always why he was very never sympathetic to slavery. He went out to the frontier, then he went up left from Boston and went to Pennsylvania where there was need for a printer and he developed a thriving printing trade. He was a brilliant entrepreneur. He not only developed the most popular paper in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia was

1:22the quickest-growing city in America, so he went the right place. But he also had a printing shop. He produced Almanack which became the most popular Almanack in the colonies and back then you needed Almanack to know when you were going to have full moon so you could harvest things, when the tides were going to be because you were fishermen or sea traders and those were important in the age of sale. It was a very practical device, but he filled it with humor and he filled it with wisdom. A popular philosophy became incredibly influential in America.

1:55That sold throughout the colonies. He ended up buying other print shops up and down the colonies, basically franchising out and then integrated backward into timber and into paper mills so that he ended up becoming one of the richest persons in the country from nothing. Purely on the brilliance of his ability and from there he decided and retired, and kept his ownership interest, so he was still getting investment income from all these print shops.

2:26He decided to become involved in public affairs. He became effectively the governor, the leader of Pennsylvania, a leader in the local affairs, so that's where he developed the first street lights in the first fire department, the first lending library. He could figure how to make systems work. The Franklin Stove, the first fireplace insert that increased the ability of heat from a chimney incredibly increased it. It was adopted worldwide. He was the first one to figure out there was a golf stream and why ships went a certain way. He was the first guy to figure out the weather moved and he figured that the weather moved from west to east, and so when he became postmaster general under the British for the colonies,

3:06naturally that was useful for him because the postmen were delivering his newspaper. He would have them collect weather information and he could predict the weather. He became the clerk for the Pennsylvania Legislature which meant he had all the inside information to print in his newspaper. It was just a brilliant entrepreneur and became very wealthy. He also got involved with science and he invented the fluid theory of electricity, therefore the fluid theory of energy which is the building block of the entire system that we have today of electricity and electromagnetism and energy. All goes back to his original insights which were recognized worldwide. Then he becomes committed to the idea of America. Again, he's like Washington.

3:55He's an entrepreneur with businesses throughout the country and literally a global reputation. Nobody could match it on that front. When the revolution comes and he's a committed believer that Americans were of equal ability and equal dignity as the British and as British citizens, they should have equal status with British textures. He was as good a scientist as anyone in England. He saw the entrepreneurial nature. He had calculated that the colonies would become more populated than the British mainland within 75 years. He was right. He projected out. He hit it on the nose and he said well, we should be represented in Parliament, and when Parliament would refuse to give Americans equal dignity,

4:51he became a supporter of Revolution and so he became an early advocate as was Washington and John Adams an early advocate of independence. He served in that second Continental Congress. He was on the committee that wrote the Declaration of Independence. Everybody thought he'd write it, but he noticed that Jefferson was really good at that, so he had Jefferson work on the drafting of it, but then he rewrote it and some of the phrases we love best are pure Benjamin Franklin. Then because of his international reputation, becomes the ambassador to France, America's first ambassador really to all of Europe initially and he gets the loans because he's had such stature. He knows how to work with the French and get money from them when why would they be supporting a Rebel

5:43colony? Well, he knows how to play them off England and he's the one who arranges to get the French not only money but French troops and the French Navy and it's his getting the Navy to come over at that battle of Yorktown, which makes Yorktown a victory. He gets French troops at Yorktown which is a decisive win. There are more French troops there than there are American troops and of course what bottles in the British is the French Navy which Franklin has arranged, so he was as central as Washington. He was probably equal with Washington as responsible for American independence and then for the same reasons as Washington. He sees afterwards he then serves as governor of Pennsylvania, elected three times, the second two times

6:31unanimously for the same reasons. He has his vision of America, especially in America that will expand and grow on the frontier just as he did, and he sees the need for a national market economy and he sees the need for a national defense. Remember, he led the Pennsylvania militia during the French and Indian War. With a like mind of Washington he accepts it in his 80s to serve at the Constitutional Convention where he is pushing those same issues, a strong effective National Union that will control international and interstate commerce and ability to tax and spend for the national welfare, including building a military that is able to defend the frontier and defend America's place in the world basically. Remember,

7:24at that time not only was it the frontier with the Native Americans, but even more of greater concern was Canada with Britain. Britain was still ruling Canada right up on the northern frontier and he was suspicious of the British just as somebody like John Adams was, and so he went to the convention to show his status, the convention came to him. Literally came to him. The Constitution Convention was held three blocks from his house. Many of the private meetings took place in his home. When the first delegates arrived, he invited them all over. Washington when he arrived, he went that first day. Even before unpacking, he went to play a courtesy call on Franklin. They met that night and as the people assembled,

8:11they would meet at Franklin's house to discuss many issues. Franklin was at his heart pragmatic. He was a pragmatic entrepreneur. He was a pragmatic in politics. He was pragmatic in diplomacy. His ideas are all based on system thinking of a better way to do everything, whether it's the Franklin Stove or electricity and that's what he brought to the convention. Of course, he had stature and dignity, equivalent to George Washington, but he was a hands-on dealmaker and he brokered. Even if he didn't initially support them, he was so committed to the ultimate goal of a unified United States that as long as it had unified control over the economy, over certain national affairs, he was willing to cut deals on the means to get there. Things like the so-called great compromise

9:17where the states end up with two senators each and represent and the House is proportional. That's really Franklin's idea. He has this nature. He's done this all his life. He takes his ideas and he hands them off to other people because he doesn't need the credit because he's Benjamin Franklin, and he's self-effacing in his own way. He lived in Quaker Pennsylvania and so he passes off ideas. When he figures out something that is going to work, he shares credit and that way he can feel better. So things like that he works on compromise after compromise of what may end up making the final system work and many of them were worked out in his house, but the great compromise would be the most dramatic example and of course, there was no

10:09more important compromise at the convention then, that's why they call it the great compromise.